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My journey to Libertarianism

I’ve been fiddling with what to write about over the past week and I got the idea of just telling about my life’s journey to political philosphy. I was born in Jan., 15 1994 in Bartlesville, OK of which I still live in. My dad originally came from Kansas and my mom Iowa. They were (and still are) strongly religious and traditional conservatives and raised me and my three sisters up as such. My first political introduction came in the form of US presidents. Basically since I didn’t know much I always just took after my parents. My mom listened to Rush Limbaugh, but I never really understood what was going on until the 2008 presidential election cycle. But even then I only had a slight understanding what was going on. I knew Obama was bad and McCain was a better choice, but that’s all I really knew. After the elections, I just turned my brain and decided to just go back to my own life again. Until about mid-2009 when the healthcare debate was going hot. To the point of Scott Brown’s election to the US Senate from Masschusetts and the 2010 midterms.

After all that I had developed a conservative leaning perspective but still didn’t where I belonged. So then came along the 2012 elections and I was so wanting to be involved I got my own twitter account which I still have to this day (twitter.com/JGcountry01). In 2012, I turned 18 so I was at the voting age and payed attention to everything going on. I decided to register unaffiliated cause I just didn’t my place. I obviously agree the GOP more often, but I didn’t know where I belonged. First candidate I supported was Rick Perry. But then Herman Cain came on the rise and especially was a fan of his 999 Plan to reform the tax code. Then he dropped out and I went to support Newt; then Santorum; then Romney who for a time I vehemently attacked on twitter saying everything possible (ironic considering how sympathetic I am to him now). So I at time went to support Romney when he was clearly the GOP nominee. I was heavily involved the general election process on social media and did what I could. And then Romney lost…

I was devastated (at first) when I saw the results come in showing Barack Obama was reelected. To the point I literally vomited from a panic attack. After a while of thinking it through I calmed down and rose to optimism again. I frankly can’t see it possible to live in depression. But something else I didn’t realize is that I was set off in a radical direction which I’ve since completed and know where I stand now. Over a period of months I gained interest of minds like Milton Friedman (more lately John Stossel). I also slowly developed affection for Ron and Rand Paul and Justin Amash. Then I went from sympathetic to an undying supporter of Rand Paul after his March filibuster which made me realize this is the guy who we all must rally around in 2016. But I started to gain a better understanding of government and libery and my positions on issues started to seriously shift in a different direction. Very little change in my fiscal and economic, but I’ve changed quite a bit in my approach to social/cultural issues. Here’s a list of them:

1. The Drug War and Legalization

On the War on Drugs, I guess I didn’t really much of a position up until I started watching Stossel segments on YouTube talking about all the chaos it’s caused over the past 40+ years. I then arrived to favoring legalization and here’s why. The drug war is about as effective in preventing drug use as prohibition was in preventing the sale and consumption of alcohol. Not only did it not work, but the murder and crime rates skyrocketed. One statistic I heard is that 17% of all Americans admitted to using marijuana compared to much lower rates in countries where it’s allowed like Holland. There are some arguments against legalization that sound legitimate like Ann Coulter referring many on welfare use drugs; except don’t welfare recepients do other things that are harmful such drink more, eat more, watch TV more? I could go on and on. Ultimately the pro-legalization side wins me over, but I will concede to letting this issue get a test run through our federalist system. That’s exactly happening in Colorado and Washington State. That’s the closest to a compromise I think conservatives and libertarians can come to.

2. Going to war

There was a time I supported the Afghan and Iraq wars. Boy has that changed dramatically since then. Interestingly though this is an element I’ve arrived to the latest in my libertarian journey. I think it was the last month or two that I came to the conclusion that Iraq was a mistake. We needlessly lost thousands of American lives and a lot who came back were never the same afterwards. Saddam was a nasty bastard and was no friend of the United States, but he wasn’t a friend of Iran either. The current government we left in place in Iraq is pro-Iranian and allows Al Queda passage through the country. If we wanted Saddam out, why didn’t we just oust him when he was at our mercy during the Golf War which much shorter and costed many less American lives? I also apply logic to Syria which Congress is gonna debate once back in session. Afghanistan I understand the initial purpose cause of 9/11, but looking at it now what the hell are we fighting for there? Sure we’re trying to keep the Taliban out, but we’re also supporting one of the world’s most corrupt governments. We’ve lost sight of the mission so I don’t see much purpose to stick around much longer. When we debate going to war there better be damn good reason to do so. If we do, we go in big, crush enemy to set an example and then go home. Also watching the latest video upload from Julie Borowski on YouTube had much persuasion on my newly libertarian views on war. Here’s a link to it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT7ymqHxaII.

3. Marriage

My view on marriage is very complex, but it’s basically it’s very akin to Ron Paul’s stated position. I strongly believe in the historical definition, but I’m very appalled with how involved the government currently is with it. While I respect traditionalists they’re not helping the situation much with the introduction of a constitutional amendment which is almost as disgusting a thought to me as the Supreme Court going unilaterally the other way. DOMA I don’t particularly care for either. When traditionalists say government (particularly federal government) is obligated to “protect marriage”, it’s the same logic used to advance leftist agenda items like government healthcare or gun control. And I’m not sparing leftists on this issue either cause legalized same-sex marriage is still government in your personal lives just with gay couples in the mix. Marriage being entangled with government doesn’t do good in the long term. The best solution I think would be to pull government out and that includes doing away with the stupid marriage license. That happens nobody’s relationship won’t be entangled with government and true personal liberty triumphs. Obviously this isn’t happening overnight either way so best let the federalist system pound that out for itself and we should at least work towards pulling the feds out of it.

4. Abortion

Very unlike marriage, abortion merit government involvement cause when it occurs somebody’s life is being threatened which is the unborn child. While I’ve retracted on some issues, I’ve only accelerated on this issue cause the right to life is the single most important guaranteed in the constitution. Not only there, but also natural law too. If the right to life isn’t granted, then no other rights matter. I’m also very happy to see the acceleration of pro-life laws being advanced in the 50 state capitals. Also the fact that my generation and women are the most pro-life demographics means Roe v Wade’s days are increasingly numbered as law of the land. Possibly in the next few years we could see it all or mostly dismantled.

My fiscal positions like I said previously are mostly unchanged so I won’t be mentioning them here. Despite disagreements, I do think conservatives and libertarians have common ground to work with. And we’re NOT “sucking up to liberals” as Ann Coulter accuses libertarians of doing. I find being accused of that as very insulting cause we’re very principled and consistent in our positions. If anybody sucks up to leftists it’s the GOP enclave in DC. That’s my story of how I found libertarianism. PLEASE comment back to me on twitter if you have an account there cause I can’t comment on RedState for some reason or another. It’s twitter.com/JGcountry01 and I’ll likely respond back. Thank you.